August 9, 2011 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is being sued for allegedly formulating policies that led to the torture of multiple American citizens, at the hands of American military personnel in Iraq. Now, for the second time this month, in two distinct cases, a federal court has found that Mr. Rumsfeld does not enjoy any immunity for actions occurring either during his service as Secretary of Defense or in a war zone.
More on page 8381
May 5, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
There is a simple response to the GOP hardliners who say bin Laden’s demise justifies waterboarding and other torture techniques used under the Bush administration, and that is: if it had worked, it would not have taken 10 years to locate bin Laden. What “led” the US intelligence community, and SEAL Team Six to bin Laden’s fortified compound was long-running, diligent intelligence work of the kind that is hampered and obstructed by irrational fits of violence, torture and vengeful behavior.
More on page 8058
February 14, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
There were three individuals convicted by the Bush-Cheney administration in military courts, and two of them are currently free and walking the street. There have been hundreds of individuals convicted on terrorism charges in civilian criminal courts, over the last three administrations, the current one included, and every one of those convictions has been upheld, and every one of those terrorists is behind bars today.
More on page 6046
February 12, 2010 :: Webb Tisch :: Comments Off
NBC’s chief Pentagon corresondent Jim Miklaszewski told MSNBC this morning that in his opinion military trials are “more reliable” in terms of the outcomes they produce. The comment was perhaps an unwelcome introduction of Constitutional questions into the debate over whether to try accused 9/11 terrorist conspirators in a civilian criminal court or before a military tribunal.
More on page 6026
January 9, 2010 :: Denver Lessing :: Comments Off
Former Vice President Dick Cheney has been a relentless defender of the most aggressive tacts used during the Bush era to combat terrorism. The word aggressive applies to the attitude, of course, not the thoroughgoing nature or effectiveness of those policies. He is now attacking Pres. Obama for his response to the alleged terror plot that involved a Christmas Day bombing over Detroit, which was foiled. Yet Senator Richard Lugar, the ranking Republican on the Senate foreign relations committee, has called Cheney’s criticism unfair, and says Obama’s response has been “strong” and “decisive”.
More on page 5784
January 8, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
There is a fundamental difference between the logic of military tribunals for battlefield captures and the Constitutional order of criminal prosecution and due process: the Constitutional criminal justice system is designed to deal with people who violate laws; military tribunals are meant to be an ad-hoc legal variation of that standard, reserved for representatives of enemy states that violate the laws of war in a battlefield setting. By inveighing against the US criminal justice system’s ability to handle terror prosecutions, the Republican party is not only actively promoting lies, but working to elevate Al Qaeda to the status of a legitimate, sovereign government.
More on page 5773
September 4, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
After reviewing the CIA inspector general’s (IG) report on prisoner abuse during and surrounding the Bush-era “war on terror”, the watchdog Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) says doctors not only attended and supervised prisoner abuse, but recorded information that “may amount to human experimentation”.
More on page 4277
August 26, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
A special prosecutor’s investigation launched under the Bush administration, to collect evidence relating to the CIA’s destruction of video tapes of abusive interrogations has been expanded to include possible illegal activity carried out in connection with the “war on terror”. Holder announced on Monday that US Attorney John Durham will expand the videotape-destruction probe to include potential illegal activities related to abusive interrogations and potentially the circumventing of due process laws, both international and domestic.
More on page 4159
July 22, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is filing a federal lawsuit to force release of documents the intelligence community has refused to turn over in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. US intelligence agencies keep records of internal reports and investigations of alleged wrongdoing, and are obliged to report that wrongdoing to the Intelligence Oversight Board (IOB), but may have failed to do so in recent years.
More on page 3725
July 19, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: Comments Off
Sami al-Haj, a reporter working for TV news network al-Jazeera, was jailed for six years at the Guantánamo Bay prison camp, before being cleared and released. He is now setting up a team to file suit against former Pres. George W. Bush and other officials within his administration for damages related to his imprisonment.
More on page 3679
July 13, 2009 :: Denver Lessing :: Comments Off
The Wall Street Journal has reported that the secret CIA program, allegedly ordered concealed from Congress by then vice president Dick Cheney, was a plan to kill or capture Al-Qaeda operatives, in response to a 2001 directive of Pres. George W. Bush. The secret program’s existence —though not its details— became known last week when sources involved in the CIA director’s testimony on the issue made known Cheney’s involvement in ordering the CIA not disclose the program’s existence to Congress.
More on page 3565
July 11, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Former US vice president Dick Cheney has been linked to the 8-year long cover-up of a secret CIA project about which Congress was never briefed, until last month. The current director of the CIA, Leon Panetta, only learned of the secret project —details of which have still not been released— last month. He immediately ordered its closure. Now, it has been revealed that in a closed-door briefing last month with members of Congress, Panetta revealed that former vice-president Cheney ordered the project be concealed from Congress.
More on page 3540
June 18, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
The Bush administration made a name for itself finding ways to obscure information about its activities by claiming the right to “state secrets” under the “sources and methods” rule, protecting active intelligence operations. The entire scope of the “enhanced interrogations” regime was justified under the need to use detainee interrogations not for criminal prosecution but as sources of militarily “actionable” intelligence. The use of “national security letters” comprehensively erasing certain citizens’ First Amendment rights regarding specific government activity proliferated wildly during the Bush years, threatening criminal prosecution in secret courts should the relevant “sources and methods” be compromised.
More on page 3022
May 29, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
This video shows conservative radio host Erich “Mancow” Muller undergoing the process known as “waterboarding”, in an effort to demonstrate that it does not amount to torture. After only 6 seconds, Muller called off the experiment and said he felt like he had experienced certain death. He said the process is “absolutely torture”.
More on page 2848
May 26, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Pres. Barack Obama has proposed the closure of the extralegal prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, where hundreds of accused terror suspects have been held for years without charge and without access to the due process guaranteed by our Constitution. With critics defaming the president as somehow wanting to “release terrorists on US soil”, an absurd claim, Obama has now muddied the soaring poetry of his defense of our Constitution and its values with an as-yet unspecified plan to establish a “legal regime” of “prolonged detention” without charge or due process.
More on page 2818
May 20, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
The United States Congress yesterday approved new legislation putting restrictions on credit card companies, limiting the leeway banks have in specifying terms and conditions in complex wording in long pages of fine print. The measure would also require that no lender see interest rates escalate until being at least 60 days delinquent and that rates [...]
More on page 2793
May 18, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
As a lawyer at the Justice Department, under attorney general John Ashcroft, John Yoo came to national prominence for opinions he provided to the White House as part of the process to lay out the legal framework for abusive interrogations. Last year, in a debate with international human rights expert Doug Cassel, Yoo reiterated a point he had argued previously, that Pres. Bush had, in his opinion, the inherent right to torture, and even to torture the children of prisoners being interrogated.
More on page 2777
May 16, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Pres. Barack Obama yesterday announced he would reinstate the military tribunals system implemented by the Bush administration to try suspects held at the Guantánamo Bay prison camp. The new round of tribunals would apply only to a handful of suspects and will require modifications to the process, as voted by Congress.
More on page 2752
May 15, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
There are questions about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her having revealed only recently that she had been briefed about harsh interrogation techniques. She has said the briefings were classified and that the contents were not permitted to be discussed, even with members of Congress who were not present. The CIA and some Republicans opposing the push for hearings, an independent investigation or a truth commission, have said Pelosi was briefed thoroughly on the nature and application of “enhanced interrogation techniques”.
More on page 2724
May 13, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: Comments Off
A former FBI interrogator today told the first Congressional hearing into “enhanced interrogation techniques” —an alleged regime of systematic torture— that waterboarding was slow, ineffective and unnecessary. He told the hearings, from behind a screen used to protect his identity, that after he had used non-abusive legal interrogation techniques to elicit useful information from Abu Zubaydah, CIA ‘contractors’ took over, waterboarded him, and the suspect “shut down” and refused to talk.
More on page 2702
May 13, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The president of the United States has taken what is perhaps his most problematic decision, in terms of following through on bold promises about ethics and transparency reform. The decision to withhold Pentagon photographs reportedly showing extreme interrogations was made due to concern the images could inflame violence against US personnel overseas.
More on page 2697
May 7, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: Comments Off
Numerous sources are reporting, across online and televised media, an internal Justice Department ethics probe, initiated under the Bush administration, finds that Department lawyers should be subjected only to Bar Association reprimands for advice justifying the use of torture in terror interrogations. It is also being reported that there was strong opposition from some officials to the use of harsh interrogations.
More on page 2610
May 6, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: Comments Off
Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of State, was national security adviser to Pres. George W. Bush throughout his first term. She was there when decisions were made about how to change US counterterrorism policy, in the wake of the attacks of 11 September 2001, and during the planning for the global ‘war on terror’. She was asked last week by a university student, with video cameras rolling, whether she authorized torture. That set off a wave of such interrogations, to which Dr. Rice has responded nervously and erratically.
More on page 2611
April 30, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The Spanish magistrate Baltasar Garzón is now reported to be opening a preliminary investigation to the acts involved in creating the Guantánamo Bay prison camp where the Bush administration held hundreds of alleged terror suspects without charge for up to 7 years. The investigation will target “any of those that executed and/or designed a systematic plan of torture or cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of the prisoners [at Guantánamo] that were under their custody”.
More on page 2506
April 30, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Countless families and communities touched by our auto industry still face tough times ahead. Our projected long-term deficits are still too high, and government is still not as efficient as it needs to be. We still confront threats ranging from terrorism to nuclear proliferation, as well as pandemic flu. And all this means you can expect an unrelenting, unyielding effort from this administration to strengthen our prosperity and our security in the second hundred days, in the third hundred days and all of the days after that.
More on page 2499
April 29, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
The US-based watchdog group Human Rights Watch (HRW) has released a report on the 1st 100 days of Pres. Barack Obama’s first term in office. The report praises Obama for key reforms banning abusive treatment and moving toward a system of due process for detainees, but is critical of some holdover policies from the Bush era, which Obama has yet to reform or plans to keep in place. On the whole, Obama is rated by HRW as having “got off to a great start when he issued executive orders to close Guantanamo and ban CIA prisons on his second full day in office,” while “failure to reject the substance of the Bush-era ‘war on terror’ framework was a tremendous disappointment.”
More on page 2364
April 29, 2009 :: staff :: One Comment
Barack Obama’s first 100 days in office have been a flurry of major reforms and of global political and economic strategy. He took the oath of office on 20 January 2009 with the worst recession in 70 years setting in, major banks on the verge of insolvency, record numbers of home foreclosures, two wars in Asia, an increasingly hostile Russia and a predecessor’s policy of using torture to “enhance” interrogations. Not only has he moved forward on the economy, healthcare, security, and energy; he has reformed the entire American diplomatic paradigm, moving toward a “smart power” based on 3d vision: diplomacy, development, defense.
More on page 2417
April 24, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The Pentagon is releasing today as many as 2,000 photos never before seen, some showing prisoner abuse at Guantánamo Bay. The photos were tied up in a lawsuit brought by the ACLU, calling for evidence of Defense Department actions at the prison camp to be made public. According to The Washington Post, the release will contain “21 images depicting detainee abuse in facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan other than the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, as well as 23 other detainee abuse photos”.
More on page 2335
April 23, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Must we, one by one, analyze and deconstruct every last bit of refuse floating in the seething drift of waste left by the Bush administration? Apparently, yes. John Bolton has now opined on his belief that the US should dictate to other nations whether or not they can investigate crimes allegedly committed against their citizens. He wants the US to tell Spain to stop meddling in US treatment of Spanish citizens, while defending the US right to detain whomever it pleases, even without charge.
More on page 2317
April 22, 2009 :: Severino Villalonso :: Comments Off
Former vice president Dick Cheney has repeatedly used mass media to accuse Pres. Obama of jeopardizing America’s security or even inviting a major terrorist attack by acting to bar US personnel from using torture in terrorism investigations or interrogations. He has repeated those claims in response to Obama’s releasing memos that show how the Bush administration crafted a legal “justification” for using techniques banned by law.
More on page 2304
April 22, 2009 :: Denver Lessing :: Comments Off
While clearly showing caution, taking care to repeat his position that prosecutions of former officials could be counterproductive, Pres. Obama today signaled that he does not rule out that some legal avenues may exist by which former Bush officials could face charges in relation to “enhanced interrogation” policy. The president did not, however, endorse any process of prosecution or call for action against any officials, saying instead “I don’t want to prejudge” what the attorney general might find legally necessary.
More on page 2291
April 18, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 2 Comments
The UN rapporteur on torture responded to the announcement by US pres. Barack Obama that CIA agents who engaged in practices the Justice Dept. had authorized as legal would not be prosecuted by saying that such an amnesty would violate US treaty obligations under international law. Manfred Nowak told the Austrian newspaper Der Standard that any acts of torture must be investigated and those involved prosecuted.
More on page 2262
April 17, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
The Justice Dept. of Pres. Barack Obama yesterday released a series of memos, reported as ‘only lightly redacted’ (for security purposes), detailing the advice the Department gave the Bush White House concerning the legality of harsh interrogation techniques proposed for use by the CIA. Pres. Obama sought to preclude a political firestorm by pledging not to prosecute CIA agents who may have implemented the techniques, if they had been advised the techniques were legal, but no such immunity was offered to administration officials who may be liable for having deliberately misinterpreted existing law or authorized illegal techniques.
More on page 2149
April 14, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Former United States attorney general Alberto Gonzales is facing indictment in a Spanish court, along with five other Bush administration officials, on charges of having orchestrated and allowed the torture of five Spanish citizens held at the Guantánamo Bay prison camp. The case arises in part because US prosecutors have not sought to charge administration officials for policies that contravened existing laws and treaties, and some speculate there may be an effort to initiate a domestic investigation to prevent sensitive materials being released to a foreign government.
More on page 2124
February 25, 2009 :: Severino Villalonso :: Comments Off
Last night, Pres. Barack Obama made his first address on the state of the nation to a joint session of Congress, though not officially classed as a ‘State of the Union’ address. Obama sought to reassure the public that economic recovery was in its beginning stages and the future was full of hope and possibility, proclaiming: “We will rebuild, we will recover and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before.”
More on page 1510
January 22, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
Pres. Obama today signed 4 executive orders dramatically redirecting administration policy from that of the Bush administration. He signed one order to close the Guantánamo Bay prison camp by 22 January 2010, another to close CIA “black site” prisons across the globe, another would establish a special task force in collaboration with Defense Secretary Robert Gates to determine detention policy going forward, and the fourth would require all US personnel to adhere at all times to the rules for treatment of prisoners as laid out in the Army Field Manual.
More on page 1350
January 21, 2009 :: staff :: One Comment
Russia and Ukraine have confirmed that they have arranged for the flow of natural gas from Russia, through Ukraine, to the EU, to be restored, though the two states differ on the details of when that resumed service will occur exactly, and EU monitors will be watching to ensure compliance with ongoing agreements. The trials [...]
More on page 1363
January 15, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Eric Holder today told the Senate judiciary committee he views the practice known as ‘waterboarding’ as torture. That makes the ‘enhanced interrogation’ technique illegal under a number of US laws and international treaties, and Holder’s view —in keeping with those of the committee chair, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Pres.-elect Obama— raises the question as to whether he would seek to prosecute individuals in the outgoing administration who engaged in or ordered such practices.
More on page 1132
January 15, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
According to the Financial Times, “Susan Crawford, the Pentagon official responsible for convening the military commissions at Guantánamo, told the Washington Post that interrogators had “tortured” Mohammed al-Qahtani, the alleged 20th hijacker.” The finding puts serious pressure on the White House and outgoing Bush administration, as the president-elect has vowed he will reverse US policy [...]
More on page 1128
November 19, 2008 :: Denver Lessing :: Comments Off
US vice president Dick Cheney has been indicted by a Texas grand jury for crimes related to an alleged prison-profiteering scheme, including but not limited to charges of “at least misdemeanor assaults”, due to his investments in certain firms. Former US attorney general Alberto Gonzales was also indicted, along with 5 other individuals. The indictment is connected to the dealings of an investment company, involving privatized federal prisons in Texas.
More on page 777
November 10, 2008 :: staff :: Comments Off
President-elect Barack Obama has been welcomed by Pres. Bush as the two confer on the work of governing, the process of transition, the inner workings of the residence and security issues. It is Obama’s 8th trip to the White House, his first to the Oval Office itself. Reuters reports that Bush and Obama “were expected to discuss the global financial crisis, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and other challenges the Republican president will bequeath to his Democratic successor”.
More on page 729
November 10, 2008 :: Denver Lessing :: Comments Off
A new report —drawing from “More than a half-dozen officials, including current and former military and intelligence officials as well as senior Bush administration policy makers, [who] described details of the 2004 military order on the condition of anonymity because of its politically delicate nature”— says the United States has conducted more than a dozen secret special forces raids, across borders around the globe to target Al Qaeda or other terrorist-linked sites, since 2004.
More on page 727
August 4, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The new book, The Dark Side, by Jane Mayer, goes to the roots of the Bush administration’s bold modifications to long-standing security policy, including an apparent devotion to the use of extreme interrogation methods, classed by both law and judicial precedent as torture, to extract information from detainees, despite such actions negating the possibility of any established form of prosecution based on such evidence.
More on page 560
July 2, 2008 :: The Editors :: Comments Off
A 3-judge panel on the DC-circuit Court of Appeals has ruled against the evidentiary grounds on which the Pentagon has held Huzaifa Parhat, a Uighur Muslim from western China, for 6 years as an enemy combatant. The government argued it had grounds to hold Parhat because the charges they allege against him had been repeated in three secret documents; evidence supporting the claims has not been made public.
More on page 462
June 15, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The US Supreme Court has taken its fourth serious action in limiting the expanded war powers claimed by the administration of Pres. George W. Bush. Observers who favor the president’s views have sought to accuse the court of “liberal” behavior, but 7 of the 9 justices were appointed by Republican presidents. In fact, the Court has moved to scale back revolutionary expansions of legal authority claimed by the executive branch. And, the four rebukes to White House claims in this time of war, are a historic intensification of the Court’s role in protecting the Constitution’s basic principles.
More on page 356
June 13, 2008 :: staff :: Comments Off
The United States Supreme Court has ruled 5 to 4 that individuals held in detention at the US naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, can appeal their detention in US civilian courts. The ruling cites the intended permanence of Constitutional safeguards and their relevance to all US government prosecutions. Writing for the majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy explains “The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times”.
More on page 355
June 2, 2008 :: staff :: Comments Off
The human rights group Reprieve has accused the United States government of using military ships as offshore prisons, to hold an unknown number of individuals detained in the war on terror (ranging from Africa to south and central Asia, and possibly southeast Asia). It names two specific vessels as likely involved, and suspects as many as 17 have been used in this way. The group has called on the US administration of Pres. George W. Bush to name all individuals held, their location, condition, reason for detention and to permit a normal criminal defense.
More on page 333
January 9, 2008 :: staff :: Comments Off
Sibel Edmonds was a translator at the FBI when she overheard, in taped wiretaps, conversations that involved US officials at high levels organizing and taking bribes in exchange for dealing nuclear secrets to the black market. The Sunday Times, a London-based Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper, has now broken the story, after years of Edmonds being turned away by the US press, due to an unprecedented “state secrets privilege” gag order. The world press is taking note, while US media outlets continue to keep quiet or not investigate.
More on page 299
September 18, 2006 :: The Editors :: Comments Off
POLICIES THAT CIRCUMVENT OUR CONSTITUTION CONVEY A FUNDAMENTAL LACK OF FAITH IN THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS Until 12 days ago, the Bush administration maintained that there were no secret CIA-run “black-sites”, extralegal prison camps where accused terror suspects were held incommunicado and beyond any judicial process. On 6 September, Pres. Bush admitted to constructing and managing [...]
More on page 71
September 8, 2006 :: jr3o :: Comments Off
SPEECH IS FIRST PUBLIC ADMISSION TO NETWORK OF COVERT DETENTION FACILITIES, PREVIOUSLY DENIED BY ADMINISTRATION Pres. Bush has acknowledged the existence of a secret network of CIA-run prisons, where an “alternative set of procedures” was used to extract information given up “unwillingly” by top terror suspects. The revelation suggests that some facilities existed on European [...]
More on page 290
CafeSentido Partner Sites: